Hei guys, im currently doing a study on optical heart rate sensor. Is there anyone who knows how an optical heart rate sensor works?? What kind of sensor did it use??
Some of them shine an LED through your finger and sense the different optical transmission of blood flow with a photo-resistor.
Look in Google for the HeMon project. (HEart MONitor)
Pulse oximetry measures the oxygen saturation in blood. I'm not sure if the same technique can be used to measure pulse rate.. I believe it can.
The sensor is very simple: Two LEDs (visible red and infrared) and a photodiode. The analog circuitry and signal processing is more complicated.